1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a computing system and more particularly to a mobile computing system integrating dissimilar computing architectures and receiving messages and files, with the messages and files arranged to conserve memory space with minimal user intervention.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are currently two popular types of mobile computing systems. The mobile Personal Computer (PC) system is a fully functional data processing system, typically having the same functionality as a desktop PC or a workstation PC. The mobile PC system (PC system) can run under any number of standard operating systems (OS), such as one of the releases of Windows® by the Microsoft Corporation. In implementing the PC system in a mobile computing architecture, several relatively undesirable features are apparent. First, the batteries of the PC system must be recharged after a relatively short time, typically in the order of a few hours. Despite improvements in battery technology, the quest for lighter and more compact portable units have tended to reduce the space allocated to the batteries so that time between charging of the batteries has not been significantly improved. The batteries used in the PC system, however, are capable of relatively rapid charging. As with the desktop PC unit and the workstation PC from which they are derived, the OS needed for the PC system requires a relatively long time from the activation of the power switch to the time when the processing system is available for actual computation. The PC system, however, has remarkable flexibility and can provide processing capability of extraordinary power. PC systems also have great memory capacity, having disk drives that can store significant amounts of information.
More recently the personal digital assistant (PDA) system has been developed to take advantage of operating systems (OS) such as Palm® OS and Windows® CE. These operating systems, in conjunction with a PDA system, permit a reduced or specialized functionality computing system.
PDA systems are relatively small in physical size and can perform a variety of useful functions such as arrange calendars; schedule appointments; send and receive e-mail; provide presentations; create documents; and provide communications. The PDA OS can permit exchange of files between the PDA systems and a PC system with Microsoft Windows® files. While the reduced functionality can be a disadvantage of the PDA system, the PDA system has several advantages. An advantage is the time between charging of the batteries can be greatly extended, a result of the reduced functionality and the absence of disk storage units. The PDA system has its memory loaded in a memory circuit, such as a flash memory, which allows the PDA system to become active much quicker than a PC system. This memory, however, has limited capacity and can quickly be filled up.
Current PC systems and PDA systems have the capability to communicate and receive messages such as email, particular through wireless communication technologies. The PC systems with their large memory capacity can receive and store a great number of messages before memory space is exhausted. PC systems, however, with their draining power requirement cannot continuously be left on while in battery mode. Therefore a PC system is limited in the number of messages it receives because it cannot continually be left on. A PDA system with its low battery consumption has the capability to remain on for a very long time. A PDA system, however, with its limited memory capacity can quickly run out of memory. Without operator intervention, a PDA system with its memory capacity fully filled, is not able to receive incoming messages. Therefore current PC systems and PDA systems are limited in their abilities to receive incoming messages such as email. A need has been felt for a mobile computing architecture having the desirable features of both the PC systems and of the PDA systems. In particular, the computing architecture would have the feature of an expanded time between battery charges. Another feature of the computing architecture would be the ability to continually receive incoming messages such as email and store messages until a user reads the messages. Yet another feature would be provide for a computing architecture that archives messages and allows incoming messages to be continually received with minimal user intervention.